Method of stripping ingots from their molds and apparatus therefor.



B. GATHMANN.

METHOD OF STRIPPING INGOTS PROM THEIR MOLDS AND APPARATUS THEREFOR.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 2, 1913.

Patented Apr. 22, 1913.

E. GATHMANN. METHOD OF STRIPPING meo'rs FROM THEIR MOLDS AND APPARATUSTHEREFOR.

APPLICATION FILED JANZ, 1913.

Patented Apr. 22, 1913.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

E. GATHMANN. METHOD OF STRIPPING mews FROM THEIR MOLDS AND APPARATUSTHEREFOR.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 2, 1913' 1,059,667, Patented Apr. 22, 1913.

, s SHEETS-SHEET 3.

Emu. GATHMANN, or BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

misrnon or srarrr'me meors rnom THEIR-moms AND APPARATUS THEREFOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.-

Patented Apr. 22, 1913.

Application filed January 2, 1913. Serial No. 739,844.

To all whom it mayconcern Be it known that I, EMIL GATHMANN, a. citizenof the United States, residing in Baltimore city, State of Maryland,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods ofStripping Ingots from Their Molds and in Apparatus Therefor,

of whichthe following is a specification.

This invention relates particularly to the manufacture of ingots inwhich molten metal is poured into a mold having a chamber larger indiameter at the top .than at the bottom. Heretofore after the ingot haspartially solidified in such molds. it has been customary to reverse orturn the mold with the contained ingot upside down and then lift themold away from the ingot, but this operation besides being diflicultresults in the formation of pipe in the body of the ingot producingflaws in the final product.

The primary objectof my invention is to provide an efiicient way ofwithdrawing the ingot from'the. mold without reversing it. To accomplishthis result I form an opening in the bottom of themold and arrangetherein an. ingot lift-er which projects downwardly from the mold intoan 1 opening formed in the mold stoolor support.

The. lifter is adapted to move vertically relatively to the mold andwhen so. moved to lift the ingot until its upper end projectssufficiently above the top of the mold to allow grippers to engage itand entirely withdraw the ingot from the mold. After the ingot is castand sufliciently solidified the mold, with its contained-ingot and thelifter thereunder, are lifted from the truck or support on which theyare 'carriedwith the lifter projecting downwardly from the bottom of themold and then they are low- -ered upon a support which engages the botingot is moved tom of the ingot lifter, then the mold is either allowedtofurt-her descend by gravity or is forced downward by mechanism whichpreferably engages the mold near its upper end. In this way the upperpartof the out of the nold and maybe engaged by grippers of usualconstruction which withdrawit entirely from the mold and carry it away.When the mold is thus forced down by power great strain is pro.- ducedon the truck or support beneath if someprovision is not made forpreventing inland in order to relieve this strain I pro ride means whichso hold the mold during the stripping operation thatsuch pressure heplatform o fh means a flanged. rests on the platform.

is received by hangers which engage the mold stool. It will thus beobserved that I taneously apply power which raises or tends to raisethemold stool while the mold is being forced downward relatively to thestool.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a diagrammatic sectional viewshowing mechanism v -embodying my improvements for stripping ingots.Fig. 2 is'a view partly in side elevation and partly in section of partsof such mechanism. Fig 3 -is a perspective view of one of the moldstools. Fig. 4 is a view on an'enlarged scale partly in elevationand-partly in section of the stripping mechanism. Figs; 5. and 6 aredetail views of modifications in which the ingot lifter is proyided withmeans for preventing it from being lifted. out of the mold chamber withvthe ingot-tgiiFigs. 7, 8 and 9 are views showingfurthcr modifications.

5 Each mold A'may be"'of any suitable construction. but *is preferablyofthe form shown where-the'lowerpart is made relatively thick and theupper part relatively thin whereby the lowerpart-of the ingot X .is madeto cool "and solidify more rapidly than the upper part thereof. Thechamber of each mold is larger in diameter at' the top than at thebottom and it is open at opposite ends.- Through the bottom 9 ening a ofeach mold projects an ingot ifter B which also serves to seal the bottomof the mold chamber. The upper portion of. the lifter is preferablytapered, as shown, to fit closely the correspondingly ta ered openin aand a considerable po ion of the lii er projects below the bottom'offthemold as ind-icatedin Figl It is customary to place the molds on trucksand to teem them while so supported and after teeming to'move thetruck-to the stripping mechanism When. trucks are thus used I preferablyconstruct them in thewayshown, 2 'e each truck C is provided with aremovable stool which has a part d. at ndiu. thr'qugh portion d whichlit be observed that each stool is formed with a part a adapted toreceive the ingot lifter D in the manner indicated in Fig. 2.

The traveling crane, shown in Fig. 1, is of well known construction. Thepart E is constructed to travel on suitably supported rails 0 while thepart F travels on rails 6 arranged at right angles to the rails e. Theapparatus F is similar in many respects to that heretofore used in ingotstripping plants,*z'. 0., there is a truck 7' supporting a motor 7' anda windlass F. The casing f depending from the truck is adapted tocontain lifting mechanism which it is not necessary to illustrate. It issuflicientto say that a rod G, which is threaded at its upper end (g)carries at its lower end a yoke H comprising arms 71 which are adaptedto engage lugs a on the neck of the mold. The rod may be raised andlowered by the mecha nism indicated and thus raise and lower the mold.It will be observed that the arms h are so formed on their lower ends asto so engage the lugs a that the mold is not only raised and lowered,but on the downward movement of the rod the mold is not merely loweredbut is forced downward positively so that inthe stripping operation ifthe ingot tends to stick in the mold it will be separated therefrom byreason of the additional pressure thus employedr Ordinarily the weightof the mold is sufficient, but if there are imperfections in the molddue to any roughness or irregularities in the mold chamber, the weightof the mold itself is insutlicient to eifect the separation of theingot. and so it has sometimes been the practice to drop the moldsuddenly to effect the desired separation but this dropping of the moldimparts undesirable strams to the mold support which, by myimprovements, are avoided.

The rod G extends through a yoke I to which are pivotally connectedhangers J having at their lower ends loops j adapted to engage the lugsd of the mold stool D. Itis not necessary, however, always to employthese hangers as frequently the ingot may be raised in "the mold bymerely lowering it on the ingot lifter slowly and without 1mparting anystrains on the truck and I have provided mechanism by which the hangersJ may be held out of operative position or may be brought intoengagement with the stool when required. For this purpose I preferablyemploy cables L, L which are connected, in the manner shown in thedrawings, to the hangers and also connected with osses? mold, suchmechanism being also employed for conveying the ingot to a soaking orre.- heatmg pit or to any other desired place. The ingots are cast inthe molds A when supported by trucks C with the ingot lifters B in theirlowermost position, as shown atthe left hand side of Fig. 2. After thecasting operation the truck is moved to the stripping plant, the liftingyoke H being so constructed, as shown in Fig. 1, that it may be made toengage the lugs a of the mold by merely moving the truck properly overits supporting railsQ. When the lifting yoke thus engages the mold theformer is raised so as to withdraw the lifter B from the stool D andthen the truck is shifted until the lifter is disposed above the part d"of the stool, then the mold is lowered and the ingot is raisedrelatively to the mold, in the manner indicated in Fig. 9, inasmuch asthe lifter remains stationary at this time. If neces sary. when the moldis being lowered, the requisite pressure may be applied to it downwardly to cause the separation of the mold and ingot. If such additionalpressure 1s very great, or of such nature that it would place unduestrain on the truck, the hangers J are brought into operation. This'maybe done by suit-ably operating the cables L, L and when the hangersengage the stool, in the manner indicated in Figs. 1 and 4, the downwardthrust imparted to the mold by the rod G is received ultimately by thehangers J and thus the truck may be entirely relieved from pressure.

It sometimes happens that the ingot lifter" will adhere to the mgot whenthe latter is being lifted out of the mold; To prevent this I may use apin N-which projects horizontally through the lower end of the lifterand is received in a recess n in the bottom of the mold, or I may use acollar or plate 0,

as indicated in Fig. 6. The apparatus may be somewhat simplifiedthus,-the yoke for raising or lowering the mold may be of the form shownat P in Figs. 7, 8, and 9. In this case the lugs a of the mold enterrecesses formed in the arms p of the yoke and instead of employingalifter of the kind shown at B, I may provide the mold with a suitablesealing stool and may use a separate lifter, such as shown at S in Fig.8.

I claim as my invention:

1. The method herein described of stri ping ingots, which consists inraising a. 1110 d with its contained ingot and with an ingot lifterprojecting from the lower end of the mold, lowering the mold, ingot andlifter onto a support which causes the lifter to raise the ingot partwayout of the mold chamber, pressing the mold downwardly while the ingot isbeing raised within it and then gripping the upper part of the ingot andlifting it out of the mold.

2. The method herein described of stripping ingots, which consists inraising the mold with its contained ingot from their support, pushingthe ingot upwardly in the mold and simultaneously ressing the molddownwardly while the li ter is raising the ingot and then gripping theupper part of the ingot and lifting it out of the mold.

3. The method herein described of stripping ingots from molds havingseparable stools, which consists in raising the mold with its containedingot from the stool, lowering the mold and ingot over an ingot liftersupported by the stool which raises the ingot part-way out of the mold,simultaneously applying upward pressure to the stool to relieve the moldsupport of strain and then gripping the upper part of the ingot andlifting it out of the mold.

4. An ingot lifter adapted to engage the bottom of an ingot and meansadapted to engage the mold to lift, lower and press it positivelydownward on the-ingot lifter.

The combination with a mold provided with an ingot lifter, of armsengaging the mold and means for operating the arms to lift the mold andto lower and press it positively downward.

6. The combination of a mold provided with an ingot lifter and havinglaterally projecting lugs, of a -yoke comprising arms adapted to engagesaid lugs, and meansfor raising and lowering the yoke to raise the mold,to lower it and to press it positively downward.

7. The combination of a mold having a vertically moving ingot lifter atitslower end and provided with laterally projecting lugs at its upperend, a yoke engaging the lugs on their upper and lower surfaces andmeans for lifting the yoke. and for slowly pressing the mold downraisingand lowering it, an ingot lifter,

means for pushing the mold downward over the lifter, and means fordrawing the lifter upward.

10. The combination of a mold support, a mold, a stool interposedbetween the mold and the support and which is separable from the moldand from the support, means for raising and lowering the mold, an ingotlifter supported at times by the stool, means for raising and loweringthe mold and means for supporting the mold stool while the mold is beinglowered.

11. The combination with an ingot mold having an opening in its lowerend, of an ingot lifter projecting through said opening and means on thelower end of said lifter for limiting its upward movement in the moldchamber.

12. The combination with a mold having an opening in its lower end, aningot lifter projecting through said opening and sealing it, a stoolhaving an opening through which the ingot lifter extends and a supportfor said lifter when the mold is raised,-

means for raising and lowering the mold, hangers separably connectedwith the stool and means for operating said hangers.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribedmy name.

. EMIL GATHMANN. Witnesses:

Maura Mnwsmw, ALEX C. GROOME.

